Similar events happened all over the outpost.
A dwarf blacksmith found a scroll stuffed into the vent of his forge. A tall jackal beastkin guard heard tapping on his shoulder only to discover a jade slip containing evidence before the goblin disappeared. An elven seamstress received a pouch of black powder that, once sprinkled, revealed footprints of humans who had vandalized her stall months ago.
Goblins had been watching, listening, following, recording.
Humans underestimated goblins because of old prejudices. But in the dark corners of the outpost, goblins had always seen everything.
Now they shared it all.
Soon enough, all the non human races had ford an unspoken alliance. They whispered among themselves, passed evidence hand to hand, and quietly delivered reports to different offices across the outpost.
By the second day, strange misfortunes began to fall upon the Yong and Qing clans.
First, Yong clan's youngest elder staggered out of his ho clutching his stomach. The man's face turned green as he suddenly collapsed on the side of the road and began vomiting uncontrollably. A small crowd gathered, so laughing, others confused.
He had eaten his usual breakfast. He had drunk his usual tea. Yet his stomach behaved as if he had swallowed poison.
What no one saw was the tiny goblin hiding inside the drainage canal nearby, whispering a rune command into a smooth pebble. The pebble pulsed faintly. The goblin chuckled and disappeared into the pipes.
An hour later, the Qing clan's senior administrator rushed down the street in full panic, both hands on his stomach. His luxurious robes were soaked from sweat. His steps beca increasingly frantic.
PHREEET
Finally he fell to his knees in the middle of the plaza, clutching his gut, and shouted in agony as he suffered a severe bout of diarrhea. He scread for soone to help him, but most simply stared. So backed away. A few children laughed.
It was incredibly embarrassing for soone of his status. And it did not stop. Within the next twelve hours, a dozen clan mbers from both households fell sick. So vomited violently. So had migraines that made them collapse. Others ran to the dic halls with cries of pain.
At first, the clans thought it was a strange Immortal grade flu brought in by so infected traveler.
But later it beca clear that only mbers of the Yong and Qing clans were affected.
Even the lowest ranked servants of other clans stayed perfectly healthy.
Panic began to spread within the offending clans.
etings were held.Healers were summoned.Spiritual detoxifiers were purchased.
Nothing worked.
The goblins were using harmless yet humiliating powders refined from deep forest mushrooms that caused temporary digestive chaos. To the goblins, these were childhood tricks. They used them on each other for fun. But used on humans, it beca a disaster.
On the third day, evidence began piling up at the outpost's administrative buildings.
One jade slip arrived on the desk of the entry registrar. Inside were clear recordings of Qing clan mbers taking bribes, underpaying workers, and even threatening lower ranked guards into silence.
Another jade slip was anonymously delivered to the Head of Internal Discipline. It contained detailed logs of every person wrongfully arrested under the orders of the two captains. Dates, nas, forged signatures, and falsified records were all listed clearly.
The Discipline Head stared at the slip for three full minutes before calling for a full clerical review.
Then more ca.
A thick box containing scrolls with written testimonies appeared on the lectern of the Guard Command's eting hall.
Beastkin testified about extortion. Dwarves asserted their workstations had been illegally taxed. Ogres spoke of discrimination. Even Elves who usually kept to themselves submitted statents written by goblins.
For the first ti in perhaps a millennium, ogres filed paperwork that contained complete sentences.This alone shocked the guards.
When inspection officers asked for verification, the dwarves spoke up first.
A burly dwarf with braided silver beard slamd his hamr against the floor.
"Those records are true. The Yong brats swindled my apprentices. If this is ignored, the entire dwarven workforce will strike. We will stop forging weapons for this outpost nor will we maintain the buildings."
The mont this was said, half the guard captains paled.
Dwarves were responsible for eighty percent of weapon maintenance and array reinforcent in the outpost. Losing them even temporarily would cripple the guard operations.
Following that statent, the beastkin representatives added their voices.Then the elves.Then the wyvernians.
By the ti Elder Dong Bo's decree for a full investigation arrived at the offices, the entire administrative wing was already on the edge of chaos.
His order made everything fall neatly into place.
Once his notice was posted on all public boards, dozens of non human witnesses lined up voluntarily outside the auditing chambers. They submitted wads of jade slips, scrolls, rune plates, and even physical objects like broken rchandise and cracked tools showing past violence.
Officials had no choice but to begin processing every case.
They discovered bribes hidden in the records, prisoners whose trials were overdue by years, and several cases of outright kidnapping disguised as arrests. One clerk even fainted after discovering a forged ledger filled with transactions that siphoned funds from the Immortal Court's own treasury!
All these findings quickly made the rounds among the staff.
The more they uncovered, the more they realized how deeply the Yong and Qing clans had corrupted Outpost Thirteen. And it was not just limited to them. Other clans allied to them were just as deep in all this.
All of this unfolded quietly while Lin Mu sat peacefully in Elder Dong Bo's office enjoying tea.
Not a soul suspected that the goblins, tiny as they were, had orchestrated the downfall of two powerful clans.
They did it out of gratitude. They did it in the shadows. They did it with their own strange sense of justice.
And in the next few days, their actions would ripple throughout the entire outpost, leaving the Yong and Qing clans facing a reckoning unlike any they could have imagined.
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